Golfers are providing a £500,000-plus off-peak spending boost to leading courses and hotels in the Highlands, teeing up another successful year for the sport in the area.

Players from the UK and abroad have already booked 218 Play and Stay packages for the 'shoulder' months of April and October-November 2014, featuring three of Scotland's top courses and four leading hotels.

The packages are provided by the partner organisation Highland Golf Links (HGL) which brings together Castle Stuart Golf Links, The Nairn Golf Club and Royal Dornoch Golf Club as well as the Kingsmills Hotel and Culloden House Hotel, Inverness; the Royal Golf Hotel at Royal Dornoch; and the Golf View Hotel and Spa in Nairn.

Fraser Cromarty, sales and marketing director at Castle Stuart Golf Links and chairman of HGL, said: "We are encouraged by the numbers booking packages for 2014 which looks like being another busy year, especially with the Ryder Cup in Scotland."